07/30: Loving Bobby

Living outside of Philly (and in PA for the last 7 years), I've gotten to see a lot of Abreu. I've always liked the guy as he's always been quick with a smile or a joke whenever I've seen him interviewed. He's generally seemed to be cordial to Phillies fans even knowing that he never really got the love that a player of his caliber should have (this applies on a national level as well).

However, in his final day on the Phillies, the fans at Citizen's Bank park did something very nice for him on his way out. When the trade was officially announced to the crowd before the 9th inning, the fans stood as one and cheered for Abreu, who had remained in the dugout hanging out with his now-former teammates. Bobby came out, waved and blew kisses to the crowd. Lidle also came out and tipped his hat. The ovation continued for a while as the fans thanked Abreu for his 8 years of service. After the game, Bobby did an interview for the station where it was clear to see that he was moved (almost to tears, by his own admission) by the fan reaction. Still, he maintained how excited he was to head to NY and to be reunited with Larry Bowa with whom he had great relations. The Phillies announcers were kind as well and wished him well, saying that they hoped to see him in the World Series this year (as do I). For all the ill spoken about Philly-area fans, today was a good day and I'm glad I got to see it.

Comments

A very cool anecdote. As James mentioned in his post, I could not help but contrast this kind of goodwill to the widely publicized recent story of a mini-courtroom in the stadium for Eagles games to bring swift justice to the drunk and disorderly.

Jason...as a Giants fan around here, I can safely say that those Eagles fans unfortunately live up to their reputation, esp. the closer you get closer to the Linc.

Phillies fans generally seem to be more tolerant of other fans - I have no idea why.

07/31 16:58:32

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